Step-by-step help for staff using Content List Toolkit.
This page mirrors the User Manual built into the application. Both are generated from the same source, so they always say the same thing.
Getting Started
Quick start
Choose the job you need from the sidebar.
Use Browse to pick the source folder and the output folder.
Choose only the options that apply to this job.
Start the job and leave the app open until the done screen appears.
Open the output folder from the done screen and review the files before sharing them.
The Light, Dark, and System buttons in the lower-left sidebar change this manual and the app together.
Workflow
Content List
Use Content List when you need a spreadsheet of files or folders. The app goes through the source folder and writes one row for each item it includes. Turn on a verification hash only when you need a fingerprint to check copies against later.
The source folder and the output folder have to be different, and Start Scan stays switched off until they are. If a file of the same name is already there, the app asks before overwriting it.
Setting
Use
Verification Hash
Adds a unique fingerprint for each file so copies can be checked later. BLAKE3 is the usual fast choice; choose Off for a quick list.
Exclude hidden files
Leaves out hidden computer files that are usually not part of the records.
Exclude common system files
Leaves out small files created by Windows or macOS, such as Thumbs.db or .DS_Store.
Exclude extensions
Skips file types you do not want in the list. Enter examples like tmp, log, or cache.
Create XLSX after scan
Also creates an Excel workbook after the scan finishes.
Preserve leading zeros in XLSX
Keeps numbers such as 001.001 from changing when the workbook opens in Excel.
Delete CSV after XLSX created
Keeps only the Excel workbook after it is made successfully.
Folders only (no files)
Lists folders instead of files. The hash, the Excel options, and the system-file option switch off with it, because they describe files. Max depth appears underneath it.
Max depth
Only shown with Folders only on. How many folder levels to go down. Leave it at 0 for every level.
Workflow
Agency Template
Use Agency Template when the spreadsheet must match the area agency headers. Turn on Use agency content-list headers on the Content List screen, and the agency fields appear below it. Fill in only the values that should be the same for the entire sheet. These fields start blank for every new scan so a value from an earlier job cannot be reused by mistake.
Field group
Guidance
RC Series
Required for every agency-template scan. Enter it before starting the scan.
RG, SG, Series
Use digits only. RG exports as 4 digits; SG and Series export as 3 digits, so 1 becomes 001 and 35 becomes 035.
Department, Division, Section, Unit
Use these when the same value belongs on every row in the sheet.
Begin Date, End Date
Use these when one date range applies to the whole sheet. Write them as YYYY or MM/YYYY.
RC Series Name
The name that goes with the RC Series number.
Confidential
Blank, No, or Yes. Leave it blank unless the whole sheet is one or the other.
TD Number, Box Number, Disposition Date
Fill these in when one value covers the whole sheet. Box Number is written as ###.###.
Location ID
The drive, share, or storage location the whole sheet came from.
Description, Comments
Use these for notes that should appear on every row.
Location Override
Optional. Leave it blank unless every row should use one shared location.
Material Type, Record Level
These start as Born Digital and Item. Change them only when the whole sheet needs different values.
RC Series is required for agency-template scans. If it is blank, Start Scan stays disabled.
Agency Template and Folders only cannot both be on. Turning on the agency headers switches Folders only off, because the agency sheet describes files.
Workflow
Email Copy
Use Email Copy when you need to gather email files from a larger folder tree. The app copies recognized email files into the destination folder, keeps their folder layout, and writes a manifest listing what was copied.
.dbx
.eml
.emlx
.emlxpart
.mbox
.mbx
.msg
.olk14msgsource
.olk15message
.ost
.pst
.rge
.tbb
.wdseml
Workflow
Clone Compare
Use Clone Compare to check whether two drives or folders contain the same files. Pick the first drive, the clone, and a folder for the results. One Hash Algorithm setting covers both sides. Single drive mode lets you scan the first drive, swap the media over, then scan the second — the app tells you when to eject and what to do next.
Soft compare matters for PDFs. The same PDF copied by some tools gets a new internal ID, which makes it look changed when nothing you can see has changed. With Soft compare on, those are reported as Metadata Clone instead of Not a Clone.
Exact Clone
Everything checked matched.
Content Clone
The files appear to match, but folder layout or saved details differ.
Metadata Clone
The app found likely PDF saved-detail differences only.
Not a Clone
Files are missing, extra, or different.
Reading the results. The verdict above is decided by the counts below it.
Count
What it means
Exact Matches
Same file, same place, same contents.
Moved / Renamed
The same file is on both drives, but with a different name or in a different folder.
Metadata-only (PDF IDs)
PDFs that differ only in their internal ID. Counted here only with Soft compare on.
Hash Mismatches
Same path on both sides, different contents. Worth looking at first.
Missing (no match)
On the first drive, not on the clone.
Extra (no match)
On the clone, not on the first drive.
Duplicates on Clone
The same contents more than once on the clone.
System Excluded
Files left out on purpose, such as Thumbs.db or .DS_Store.
Differences appear on screen as they are found. The table stops at 5,000 rows so it stays quick to use — the Diff CSV holds every one of them.
Workflow
Getty Tags
Use Getty Tags to check the Tags column of a CONTENTdm export before you upload it. It takes out the hidden characters that stop the upload, and checks every term against the Getty Art & Architecture Thesaurus. Your export is never changed — the app writes a corrected copy beside it.
Export the Access Main table to Excel as you normally would.
Browse to the exported sheet. Excel, CSV, and tab-delimited text files all work.
Choose where terms should be checked, using the table below.
Click Check Tags. Rows with nothing wrong are not listed.
Fix what it found. Edit a tag, or click one of the suggested replacements.
Click Apply Fixes & Re-check. Repeat until nothing is left.
Upload the cleaned copy, not the original.
Check terms against
Needs
Use when
Getty, live
Internet access to Getty
Always, when it is reachable. It is the only up-to-date source.
Built-in list
Nothing. The list is inside the app.
When Getty cannot be reached. Works with no internet at all.
A term list on this machine
A file you choose
When you keep your own list, or built one from a Getty archive.
Do not verify terms
Nothing
When you only want the hidden characters cleaned up.
Choosing Getty, live shows whether Getty can be reached from this computer, in green or red. It checks once, when you pick it. If your network changes — a VPN comes on, or support opens something up — click Check again.
Need a fresher list? The Getty Tags screen links to Getty's download centre. Take only the file named aat_rel_<mmyy>.zip — nothing else on that page can be read here — then use Build list from a Getty archive, and the app turns it into a term list beside it.
The app will not do that download for you: Getty's download site is not a secure one, and this app only makes secure connections. Some workplaces block that site too. Neither affects the live check.
Any list held on this computer — the built-in one, or one you build — answers for the day it was made, and each shows its own date. Getty keeps changing the thesaurus, so a list can still accept a term Getty has since renamed. The app tells you when an answer came from a dated list. Use the live check whenever you can reach it.
Reading the results. The numbers across the top summarise the sheet; the table below them lists only the rows with something to say.
Number at the top
What it counts
Would have failed upload
Rows with something in the Tags cell that would stop CONTENTdm loading the file. The app repairs these.
Repaired
Rows the app corrected for you in the cleaned copy.
Need review
Rows with something left for you to decide or correct.
Empty Tags cells
Rows with no tags at all. Not an error, but worth knowing about.
Vocabulary
Where the terms were checked, and how many terms that source holds.
Each finding starts with what it wants from you. Fixed means the app already corrected it and there is nothing to do. Must Fix means correct it before uploading. Review means it is your judgement call and will upload either way.
You can edit any tag in the table. Apply Fixes & Re-check saves your edits to the cleaned copy and checks it again. Re-check reads the sheet fresh without saving anything — use it if you changed the sheet in Excel while this screen was open.
Finding
What it means
Invisible characters
Hidden characters pasted in with the term. These are what stop an upload. The app fixes these for you.
Separator
A semicolon missing its space, or a space in front of one. Fixed for you.
Spacing
Extra spaces at the start, end, or middle. Fixed for you.
Empty tag
Two semicolons together, or one at the end. The empty entry is removed.
Getty has no such term. Suggested replacements appear beside it when there are any.
Not the preferred term
A real AAT term, but a variant term. Getty has a preferred term for the same concept, and that is the one to use — click it to swap the tag over.
Spelling case
The term exists but Getty spells it with different capital letters, which can mean a different thing.
Unclosed bracket
A term that lost its closing bracket, such as counters (furniture. Nothing will ever match it.
Duplicate
The same term twice in one cell.
Tag count
Fewer than 3 or more than 5 terms.
Too long
The cell fills the 255 characters Access allows, so Access probably cut the last term off mid-word.
Not checked
Getty could not be reached for that term. This does not mean the term is wrong.
Bracketed part unchecked
The term is fine, but a list held on this computer does not store the part in brackets, so only the first half was checked. The live check confirms the whole thing.
The corrected copy is named with -tags-cleaned and sits beside your export.
The report is named with -tags-report and lists what was found and what changed.
Use Show in Folder to find both files.
A sheet with nothing to correct does not get a cleaned copy, so there is no doubt about which file to upload.
Why the built-in list is smaller than the AAT. Getty counts 503,230 terms across 74,460 concept records. The built-in list holds about 176,000 — the Getty Tags screen shows the exact count for your version. Nothing is missing — the two counts measure different things.
All AAT terms
503,230
Getty’s own count, across every language the AAT holds.
English terms
187,988
The AAT is multilingual: one concept record carries its terms in English, Spanish, Dutch, Chinese, German and more. This app assumes English tags, for now, so only the English terms are kept.
Distinct spellings
176,629
The same spelling can be a term in several concept records — “landscapes” is both the landform and the genre. The list holds it once, because it answers whether the spelling is an AAT term, not which concept record it belongs to.
So most of the gap is other languages, and the rest is spellings that repeat. Of the terms that remain, about 56,000 are preferred terms and about 120,000 are variant terms — and each variant knows the preferred term that replaces it.
Getty keeps revising the AAT, and the built-in list comes from whichever Getty archive this version of the app was built with, so these counts and the ones on Getty’s own pages will drift apart over time. The live check is not a copy at all: it asks Getty directly and sees everything Getty holds today. It looks at English terms only, the same as the built-in list.
Reference
Outputs
The app names output files with the source folder name and the date and time of the job.
CSV files open in Excel and other spreadsheet tools.
XLSX files are Excel workbooks. Create one when the final handoff should be an Excel file.
The report file includes totals, the options used, skipped-file examples, and file type summaries.
Very large jobs may be split into multiple spreadsheet parts so Excel can still open them.
Reference
Updates
On Windows, the app looks in the X:\Apps folder for a newer content-list-generator.exe from support. Open About if support gives you a different folder.
It only installs a newer app file from that folder, and only one support has signed.
When an update is ready, restart the app from the update prompt.
Support
Troubleshooting
macOS security prompt
Right-click the app, choose Open, then confirm. You usually only need to do this the first time.
Windows SmartScreen
Choose More info, then Run anyway if this app came from your trusted release location.
Slow scans
Network drives, very large files, and verification all add time. Choose Off for verification when you only need a quick list.
Reset settings
Open About and share the settings location with support if the app needs to be reset.